Preface

On June 30th, 2000, the Burroughs ICON computer lab at our school closed.
After about fifteen years of introducing computers to some 3000 children at
our school, it had all disappeared from the classroom in less than two hours.

The Burroughs ICON computer was born during the early 1980's. The schools
in the province of Ontario Canada were in a chaotic state when it came to
the introduction of computers to the classroom. There was just no consistency
between school boards or even schools.

The platforms were as varied as the population. There was no clear direction
of what a school should do. Should the choice be Apple with the Apple II running
Applesoft, IBM with the XT running Microsoft DOS, or a truly Canadian
solution - Commodore with the Pet running CP/M.

The school system being so varied that each board was left to its own direction.
The wealthier the board of education, the more money was appropriated for
Information Technology. Even within school boards equity was not assured because
each school community could afford different capital outlays depending on the
parents affluence. As late as December of 1999, some classrooms were still
equipped with Commodore 64s which were often out of order due to lack of
trained repair technicians.

In 1983 or there abouts, the Ontario Government created a Crown corporation
called the Canadian Education Microprocessor Corporation, CEMCORP for short.
(This corporation has long since collapsed and died.)

It's mission statement was the following:

Computers are fast becoming an integral part of our lives. It is impossible
not to come in contact with one as we go through our daily activities, even
if it is only in the form of a cash register or an automatic banking machine.

Children are also exposed to these on a daily basis, but often only at the
level of a video game. Because computers have become so prevalent in society,
today's children will be expected to be able to use them competently when they
enter the work force. Educational institutions have recognized this need and
have begun to implement computer education courses on a wider scale and at
successively lower grades.

When computers were first developed they were huge, immensely complicated
machines, and only the highly skilled could use them. Since that time the
development and growth in the computer industry has been dramatic. Circuitry
that used to fill a room is available in a chip no bigger than the tip of
your finger. Software development has also progressed rapidly from the early
days of machine language to icon-driven interfaces controlled by a mouse or
trackball. Now computers can be used by everyone, even preschoolers.

The ICON was specifically designed for education, using the most
sophisticated technology and software concepts available today. The ICON
can be used to teach computer languages (the traditional concept of computer
learning), or as a tool to help children in a variety of areas such as geography,
history, science, languages, and writing skills through word processing. The
ways in which the ICON can be used in the classroom are virually limitless.